Work
From Age to Age Endure
for solo soprano, SATB choir and chamber ensemble
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About
Although the title comes from the hymn All People That On Earth Do Dwell, this work is more concerned with the pleasures and pitfalls of aging, than with piety. The texts are from a collection of writings (both poetry and prose) associated with each age from birth to 99 years old. The selection I made was purely of those items which appealed to me personally - some are humorous, others more serious, some cynical whereas others contain wisdom.
From Age to Age Endure was commissioned by Auckland Youth Choir, and is affectionately dedicated to them and their conductor at the time, Brigid McLafferty. I was asked to write a work with jazz influences, and although not a great jazz fancier, I hope I have created a work which is fun to sing and enjoyable to listen to. The work is scored for solo soprano, SATB choir and small ensemble (or piano duet).
Commissioned note
Commissioned by Auckland Youth Choir
Dedication note
To Auckland Youth Choir and conductor Brigid McLafferty
Contents note
- Childhood and Interruption
- Jerry Jones
- What, still alive...?
- For Mrs. Thrale
- Lines on Facing Forty
- My Rival
- When I'm sixty-four
- Psalm 90
- The Silent Voices
- At Ninety-six
- Epitaph to Mrs. Freland
Text note
Text by Stevie Smith; from The Temperance Orator and Reader ; by Hugh Kingsmill, parodying A.E. Housman's The Dawn's Delay; by Samuel Johnson; by Ogden Nash, from Collected Verse; by Rudyard Kipling, from Departmental Ditties; with apologies to Lennon and McCartney; from the Bible; by Tennyson in 1892 - shortly before his death; by Frank Buxton, former editor of the Boston Herald, At Ninety-Six; and Epitaph to Mrs Freland, in Edwelton churchyard, Nottinghamshire
Performance history
25 May 2008: Made in NZ
08 Aug 2010: BIG SING National Finale 2010
Performed at the final of the NZCF Big Sing 1999
Performed by Viva Voce conducted by John Rosser with Maria Treadaway (soprano); James Brown and Susan Smith (piano duet)